“There must be a better way of doing this,” remarked AfriForum on witnessing how the municipality had made huge holes all over the place in search for sewer pipelines. Where are the infrastructure maps?

The major sewerage spill in the veldt at the corner of President and Ruh Street in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) is a cause of great concern and constitutes illegal pollution. Local AfriForum chairperson Mr Wally Schultz was appalled when he saw at least four holes dug in the same vicinity by a municipal back actor in search of sewer lines.

The quest for the sewage lines was sparked or accelerated by the actions of AfriForum of laying a criminal charge against the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) for pollution of the environment. That specific sewage overflow, which spills sewage into the town’s river and natural water sources, tested a faecal coliform bacteria count of more than 1 000 000 per 100ml. The count for untreated sewage flowing into a natural water source should, by law, not exceed 100 000. “We warned the VDM that they had 48 hours to correct it,” Mr Julius Kleynhans (AfriForum Head: Environmental Affairs) said on 12 April. High counts of faecal coliform bacteria pose a risk to humans and animals if ingested.

One hole was dug right at the sewage spill and consequently a sewage waterfall erupted. Another hole was dug adjacent to the first one, but the pipe they found was not the right one. Another hole of about three meters deep was excavated adjacent to a block of flats and was left open. The holes were all about 50 to 60 meters away from the new borehole in the veldt in President Street. Then another hole was dug on the other side of the borehole, and so on…

“They are wasting time digging holes on a thumb suck. There has to be a more efficient way. It took two working teams how many days to dig those holes. Mr David Mukosi of the municipal water services, a very polite and helpful person, told me that he does not have a map of the sewer lines,” said Schultz.

A former municipal official said that there used to be battery-operated machines to locate sewer lines. There also used to be a map of the underground sewer infrastructure, and whenever engineers upgraded the system later on, they obviously had to use infrastructure maps that could be located from them.

VDM’s water services manager, Mr Eric Masakona, responded promptly to the request for a sewer infrastructure map and said that they were not in possession of such a map.

Questions on the sewer infrastructure maps put to the Makhado municipality have not yet been answered.

In the meantime, the certificate of analysis of the sample test of the sewage spill states that “when discharged this effluent will cause serious harm to the environment, aquatic health and down-stream users… The suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, faecal coliform bacteria, as well as the free and saline ammonia concentration of the sample exceeded the general discharge limits.” The standards used to evaluate the water were the Wastewater Discharge Limits as stated by the national Water Act, Act 36 of 1998.